Answering Service Blog

Using a virtual phone receptionist is a great way to impress your callers. On top of that it helps you take control of your calendar and focus on the things that matter. Here are 12 reasons why using a virtual answering service will help your business.

Leading answering service companies share several key characteristics. Business owners considering hiring an answering service should deliberate over these seven qualities that the best answering service companies have in common.

Businesses and organizations hire an after-hours answering service for multiple reasons. One common reason is to avoid the need to hire, schedule, and manage staff outside of regular business hours to answer phone calls and handle customer communication.

While few people are happy with the current state of healthcare in the United States, one ray of sunshine comes from the growing role medical answering services and healthcare call centers play in providing professional, personal care and attention to patients and their caregivers.

An answering service is a professional services provider that can make a difference in how your organization communicates with your stakeholders. If you view an answering service as a commodity solution, you misunderstand their true value, and you’ll likely end up selecting the wrong provider for the wrong reasons.

Will a doctors answering service help you better serve your patients? If you’re not sure, learn what a doctors’ answering service can do for you. And if it looks like these are the outcomes that will provide a difference for your organization, you can begin by taking your first step to select the ideal answering service.

When we hire a call answering service, we have a set of predefined expectations that we want our answering service to provide. However, we often assume these critical items exist—or they may even be subconscious—so we forget to include them in our selection criteria. Then, we’re shocked if our call answering service misses one of these key areas.

Hiring an answering service is hard, and that assumes you’ve done it before. You know it’s too easy to make a misstep, and that there’s no guarantee it will work out. And hiring an answering service is even harder if it’s your first time. Your standing in the company, the respect of your boss, and even your continued employment may hinge on the outcome. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can tip the balance in your favor. Ask these six key questions when hiring an answering service. Listen carefully to the answers. They’ll guide you to success.

Have you ever had conversations with prospects and realized they didn’t have a true understanding of what your business can do for them and how you’d do it? Some prospects may not know the best ways to shop for services in your industry. Answering services aren’t rocket science, but they too are more complex than they first appear.

Companies have varying levels of answering service needs, often extending beyond the sheer need to have a professional answer customer calls. Add in the competition in today’s marketplace for answering services, virtual receptionists, and call centers, it’s no surprise that the range of partners that provide such services is quite large – from big, corporate juggernauts to small startups.

For decades doctors have relied on medical answering services to provide after-hours phone support to their patients. And with the rapid changes in the healthcare industry, this is more important now than ever before.

With advances in technology and inexpensive telephone communications, it no longer matters where an answering service is located. Right? It’s true that answering service location ceases to be the key consideration it once was. However, location still plays a factor. To be more correct locations play a factor. This is because today’s best answering services operate out of many locations. Why does it matter for an answering service to have more than one location? In a perfect world, it doesn’t. However, problems can arise from any number of factors. Having a multilocation answering service provides a way to address these issues, whatever they may be.

Of any season throughout the year, winter is almost always the most unpredictable. And the chaos that these months can affect more than your life – they can also affect your business.

Though they have their own, unique terms, answering services and virtual receptionists aren’t wildly different on a fundamental level. They may have been entirely separate in the past, but growing companies have started to provide a wide range of services that blur the line between them.

A virtual receptionist is a real person who answers your phone but who isn’t stationed in your facility. They are, in essence, virtually present. But even though you can’t see them sitting there at your front desk, they’re always available to take your calls whenever you need them to.

Business owners put their sweat and tears into their companies. You invest so much of your time and energy to help your business grow – hopefully to the point when it makes sense to outsource part of your operations. Though it may be gratifying to know you can afford to outsource, it can still be terrifying to put part of your business in the hands of someone else.

Rarely are we ever prepared for natural disasters. Their devastation is product of their unpredictability. Should we have more advanced notice before a disaster strikes, perhaps we’d all be better equipped to face its impending realities. But mother nature offers no such luck, and many businesses suffer pains that could have been prevented. Hurricanes Irma, Harvey, and Jose left $150 billion in damages, and many small business owners are still wondering how to rebuild.

The phrase live receptionist is a strange one, yet most people understand what it means. It’s a plea to talk to a real person on the phone and not attempt to interact with technology.

While few people are happy with the current state of healthcare in the United States, one ray of sunshine comes from the growing role medical answering services and healthcare call centers play in providing professional, personal care and attention to patients and their caregivers. Most everyone knows a medical answering service takes messages for patients who call after-hours. What they may not know is that an answering service can do so much more.

As much as we take note of the dwindling number of mom-and-pop shops across America, modern-day small businesses can and do compete with national and international chains. Cost isn’t the only means of competition either. Larger companies are often able to bargain for less expensive variable costs with their suppliers – and thus, are more readily able to lower prices.